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Topic: Concerning the Drow (Read 16124 times)

Kali pondered his logic nodding silently as she walked. She half turned as he exclaimed a sentence in the name of the goddess. It was unheard of to use such words, she had seen men beaten and dragged away to cells for the mere mention of such a diety, let alone the actual condoning of it. Her people she realised had been intent on removing any question that they were wrong, and though mentally many questioned, few had the foolish desire to call out their thoughts; even when in a baudy tavern and their tongues had been loosened by mead.

"I do not take offense so much, I just find it a strange thing to say" she said leisurely. "As for myself, you may call Kalianah, Kali, anything along those lines". She watched the foreground before them intently as she walked, occasionally looking towards her two new companions of whom were so different to each other and herself she was amazed they could walk amicably.

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~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~

"I'm just Luke," He had a foreworn look and seemed depressed. "Yeah let's move on. I don't know about you but I just want to get away. Maybe bring justice back here someday but right now we are too few."

Luke waited a second unsure which way to go, he had never been very far from the monastery. He noticed Kali's pricked foot, "Here your feet will be shredded if you continue like that." He selected some leaves from low fat bushes that had large leathery leaves and long stems. He grabbed five of six and kneeled down. "Here let me see your foot, these leaves won't last very long but they'll take a good days walk and the bush is plentiful here."

Kali was touched by Luke's kindness. At first she thought to refuse his kind offer, after all her feet were no doubt as leathery as the leaves but then she was used to walking on obblestones not the sticks and sharp ground she walked on now. It was with an amused thought she realised she had only ever owned one pair of shoes.

She gave a small smile, "Thankyou...". She didn't know what else to say, she was not used to others helping her. As a monk she suppossed he knew mnay things like this, the herbal remedies of their time, she thought.

When he had finshied she took a step and noted the softness of th eleaves, they were cool too, and nary a stick periced their thick skin. "Thankyou" she said again wiggling her toes experimentally.

Logged

~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~

"No problem, most of the vegetation around here has one use or another, those berries over there, the blue ones will induce sleepiness, but those red ones are invigorating. The sap from the tree over there is a mild narcotic and reduces pain, only a couple plants are poisonous here, but dark colored berries and bright green leaves are usually a foreteller of poison."

"This is an odd feeling, to be walking in a land so soft, and full of bounty." Ahadi said. "I can scarcely imagine a place where food simply springs out of the ground by its own volition. There is so much color, so many different shades of the same color. Each leaf if different, each tree different from the one next to it, and yet they are all still green."

"In Underdark, our food is cultivated and measured out. Bread is made of flour from a fast growing fungus, and the meat of sligs is the most common." He said, pausing when he saw the unknowing look on their faces.

"A slig is a cavern slug, they grow to perhaps eight feet in length, and feed upon the fungus that grows in the deeping places. Their meat is dark, and has a dry flavor. It is also very very bloody when butchered. It is an Underdark staple I will not miss. I will miss the tabiki, a mushroom wine that is served warm."

"Well I can't tell you much about the brews they make up here, but I do knew there was an old wine master who became a monk in the late of his life, he would brew the finest october ale in all the land. It's served ice cold and tastes so good." Lucanus paused for a second a fond smile of memory on his face, the first one in a long time. "Good ol' Friar McDrire."

"I can tell you I'd take a flank of rheindeer steak to a chunk of warm any day though."

Kali smiled at Ahadi's observations of what surrounded them. She having always had access to such things took it all forgranted as she thought on this brielfy as she walked, coming out of her reverie when Ahadi presented them with the diea of mushroom wine and eating the flesh of a large slug that lived in their dark tunnels. He had described it as bloody and Kali shuddered. She was a devoted vegetarian and even the most convincing argument could not make her change her mind. She had seen men kill for a single steer when times were hard, and she thought back on a wise saying, "Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith". Perhaps it was her true feelings on the brutality of man? Even she herself could not quite allow herself to fathom the reasons.

She next heard Luke speak of an ale brewed by an old friar. She did not enjoy the taste of ale, but was partial to a strawberry wine the local tavern had produced. Kali didn't really know what to say, "Do you know where we are headed?" she asked finally realising she knew little beyond her own borders.

Logged

~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~

"What do you mean, you said you knew a way out." Ahadi said, pausing to touch the bark of a pine tree with a look of small wonder. "I have been on the surface once...now. All I know is that there is a way down to what used to be my home under Omelas, and that is it."

He wished he had not tld Maril about Azriel. It would serve the drow right that he take ill with a festering stomach wound and die a slow agonizing death. The priestess of the Spider Goddess might bless him with some poison to make the end come sooner. Of he might just get better, it was hard to tell with the spidersworn. They were all crazy.

"I think we should find a safe place to stay and find something to eat and something to drink."

"I don't know much but one of newer adepts said he came from a lakeside village about twenty kilometers northwest of the city. There's a side road that leads about two kilo meters in that direction before vearing north east. I don't know muhc else but I agree farther the better." Luke vollunteered.

"I said I knew a way out yes, out of the city, but after that I'm as lost as you" she said with a hint of irritation in her voice though her expression remained clear. She nodded as Luke explained what he thought they should be able to find. For the umpteenth time that day she cursed not learning more, but her life had been so focussed on the city that anything else had seemed irrelevant.

"Ahadi, would you speak of life under the earth? There have been many tales, but I am sure not many truths". She raised her eyebrows slighlty hoping he would agree.

Logged

~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~

"Living under the earth is about survival, endurance, living in the cold, and the dark." he said as they walked. "Things have greatly improved for my people. At one time we fought and raided amongst ourselves, and the other races who make up the flowstone kingdom. There are fish like creatures who dwell in the sunless seas beneath the earth, and cousins of the dwarves. Those were dark days, after we were driven into the ground. Some encampments fell to cannibalism, or woshipping evil powers. Others sought the surface and found the waiting blades of the elves and the humans and the axes of the dwarf lords."

"But we found a way to survive. The flowstone kingdom is ripe with fungus. some is dense and almost meat-like in texture, these are slow growing, and are carefully harvested. Some of this is the fungus that tabiki is distilled from. Others grow faster, some whispy some clumpy. It all has to be cooked before eating, unless you want the fungus to start growing on your insides. It happens though, one or two people a year are consumed by fungus, but they are usually among the poor, and destitute, eating cold fungus, inviting illness.

"We crafted the lanterns and kindled barrowflame, magical fire of the earth, crafted new tools and homes from the cold stone. We learned to live in our new homes, and we grew in number again, though I would not say flourished. Slig farming was discovered, and meat was available again, though many of us remain vegetarians...by choice."

Luke motioned to a bush a of juicy red berries, as Ahadi told his story. He paused and gathered some of the berries. The area around them was dense with forest, most of the trees were evergreens that reached heights of nearly a hundred feet. Between their topsrays of sunshine streamed down illuminating the forest floor.

Ahadi took a large handful of the berries and ate them slowly, interspacing them as he spoke. He seemed to relish the flavor of each berry as he ate it, as if each berry were a new fruit, a new taste from the last. He looked up into the canopy of the trees.

"I can scarce imagine plants so large. But I have yet to see a fungus more than a few meager inches tall. I suppose if there were plants in the dark places they would be small and weak also." he said, stopping to pick and sniff one of the mushrooms along the path.

"We know of these, they are common in the dark, but perhaps somwhat larger." he broke off a piece, and handed it to Kali, and a second piece to Luke. "This is what my kind usually eat, if you are curious." he said, placing the stem of the mushroom in his hand with the remnants of the berries. He didnt want to spoil their wonderful flavor with the dry woody flavor of the mushroom.

Kali accepted the peice of mushroom with a little apprehension. She sniffed it feeling its rubberyness between her fingers. It was similar to the feild mushrooms that the country people sold at market during the cooler months. She took a small bite and was not displeased at it's taste/ it was earhty to be sufre but she had had worse. She gave a small smile, "And you say this is almost all you eat?" she questioned feeling amazed that all of their nutrients could come from such a source.

She next tried one of the red berries and found it's taste to be sweet and almsot sickly. She wondered ow mnay one could eat before they became toxic to the taste. Her feet were rapidly becoming weary and she wished to be able to lie down and rest, although them moving quickly was the objective.

Logged

~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~

Luke popped the mushroom in his mouth, "It wood be good in salads." He paused as Kali looked a little woosy after eating a berry. He popped one in his mouth, it tasted sweet but a with a twinge of sour, a little under ripe. Luke didn't feel anything weird. "Hey Kali you alright?"

Kali had depositied the last of her berries on the ground. When she was kindly questioned by Luke she gave a small grin saying, "I'm fine, just a little tired thanks". She did not add that she had not slept in a couple of days for looking after a good friend in the small ghetto like room they shared, whilst she was agonisingly consumed inside out till she had died.

The woman had been like a sister after her mother had died and her death although expected had come as a shock. She had not broken down and cired as one mght do in such a situation but stood up and began cleaning the orom, finally cleaning her friends skin and wapping her in the cleanest and finest sheet they owned. Shehad left her lying, like some kind of mummy in their room. Shortly after this she had ventured out, and hence met the two she now travelled with.

She looked ahead and then stopped a little suddenly. "Do you smell smoke?" she asked them her eyes scouring the trees which seemd to go on forever though she knew it could not. There was the slight smell of ash in the air, a campfire perhaps?

Logged

~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~

Ahadi drew his blade, a wicked two-handed talwar with a hammered brass handle. The blade was wide, and heavy, the sort used for shearing through armored opponents. It was still marked with the blood of the drow he almost killed in Omelas.

"If we are come into a trap, our ambushers will pay a heavy price for their folly." he said, the blade ready before him, as he advanced towards the source of the smell of smoke.

Kali stilled as Ahadi withdrew his balde. For a second she had thought to back away. The blade was long and menacing, and was still tainted slighlty with spilt blood. He was a man who obviously knew how to use it and she wouldn't like to be on the receiving end. She walked solemly behind him, scouring the ground for anything she could use as a weapon. She only had a small knife wrapped in some of the material she used for her skirt at her waist. It was good in close quarters, but was useless for anything else.She hoped that Ahadi was right, personally she would have tried to avoid meeting the owner of the campfire, but it seemed he wanted only to meet with danger.

"Ahadi, they will recognise you for Underdark". She did not know why his safety concerned her, but it did. She had helped him escape had she not? Technically betraying her own people (If she could call them that) and to see him die now would have been, so it seemed a great loss and pity. She stopped his advancing steps softly touching his arm, "I can walk ahead...if they see me they will most probably not make a big fuss, providing they are simply travellers, and I can let you know whether it would be best to stay clear and I can meet with you at a later time" She looked at Luke including him in the conversation.

Logged

~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~

"We'll just walk around to the side, if they try to fight us, well that is their folly." Luke did a quick hop and did the splits in air, it made him feel a little more limber. "No offense Kali but you are not inconspicuous either none of us are, let us just stick together, they'll think twice before trying to tangle with three insteand of one.

Luke was stretching and geting his blood flowing, it was a simple power boosting technique. Luke's blue eyes had a firey ferocity in them, but not the animal rage that had consumed him in the city. "If they question us too much we can always say we captured him to slow them down for a second, if that doesn't work I'm confident we an fight our way out. I don't feel confortable going around though these trees all look so much alike it would be hard to gt back to the right direction."

Kali shrugged, "I only offered for if it is a camp of city guard that have somehow survived the plague, or pehraps even guards from another city, they will be used to women dressed such as I am". She used a hand to gesture down her sparsely made raiment. "But your idea is better...". She looked around finally spotting a suitable stick she thought would do to defend herself if it came to it. She picked it up, dusting off the end of it so she could hold it more comfortably without it slipping.

Logged

~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~

"It's a good plan but were in the woods, their not going to expect to see a Lady in the woods, alone. As a group maybe they'll think were just travellers. And if their from anthoer city they won't know about the Drow yet, I hope."

Kali nodded agreeably. "Hopefully you are right". She held her chosen weapon more tightly as she tried to comfort herself that all would be well. Her knuckles had become white with her grip on the bludgeoning weapon and she tried t relax as she noted it but to no avail. They were steadily decreasing the distance between themselves and whatever lay ahead and the scent ofsmoke was rapidly becoming stronger. She was sure she cold almost feel the heat of the glowing coals, although that was impossible.

Logged

~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~

"You mean that neither of you can bespell them?" Ahadi asked, his grip on the talwar loose, the flexible grip of a seasoned soldier. He chafed at the feeling of fear and indecision that wove its way through the trio. They were hesitant and he became hesitant, and in the underdark, the hesitant were food.

He stormed ahead, hewing down several sapling with the curved blade, and shouted a challenge at the source of the smoke, ready for battle, or flight, whichever would be the most prudent. Action.

Luke wasn't sure what Ahdi meant by bespell, maybe he was talking about Magery. He followed Ahadi though, and liked that he direct, Luke followed his presence creating an imposing shadow behind Ahadi. Luke had never had to fight very often, when disputes broke out near his presence was enough to keep things from turning violent.

Kali walked last, behind Luke and he behind Ahadi. She hadn;'t known exsactly what bespell meant but came to the same understanding as Luke. "Well, she thought, if wishes and spells were pots and pans there'd be no need for tinkers. The simple rhyme gave her comfort and she let the stick out of her vice like grip so it was held in one hand horizontally at her side. Before they knew it, they were stanidng before the smoky clearing. The signs of a recent fire were evident in the glowing coals. Foot rpints had turfed up the soil and flat patches were they had lain were still visible and unmarred by the passing of the natural inhabitants of the forest.

Kali looked around suspiciously. She knew enough to know if they were gone it was not long ago. She held the stick in two hands now before her in a defensive stance. Then she remembered as a child playing games like hide-and-seek. She had once been told that the aazing thing about humans id that they do not often look above or below their level either mentally or physically. She had learnt this true meaning in the mental sense a few years before, but the physical sense had proved true that day in the small courtyard. She looked up into the boughs of the trees, her strangely hued eyes passing over the green foliage that moved only when the wind felt the desire to aid it. Then she heard a small scuffle like noise followed by ther sound of something tight being stretched yet further. Beads fo sweat had begun to form on her brow and sh elicked dry lips like a cornered animal. She knew that noise sure enough, a bow no doubt with an arrow already notched was most undoubtedly being aimed at their hearts.

Logged

~I dont go looking for trouble. But with me trouble never waits for the asking, it nearly alwasy gallops halfway to meet me~